Woman Player Causes Friction on Water Polo Team at Valley

Twelve years of a “very demanding” Catholic-school education put Lotte Smits van Oyen in the mood for a little relaxation after graduating from Notre Dame High last summer. Let’s postpone getting serious for a couple of years. Yeah, that’s the plan. Take a few snap classes at Valley College. Play on the school’s water polo team. Avoid stress. Make a lot of friends.

“I wanted to take a break and have fun,” Smits van Oyen said.

But it hasn’t quite worked out. “So far,” she said, “it’s not all that relaxing.”

Not only are trigonometry and chemistry “harder than I thought,” but her experiences as the only woman on the men’s water polo team have put a strain on her. With the season drawing to a close, she said, “Half my teammates are still having a hard time accepting the fact that there’s a girl on the team. They make it as hard as they possibly can for me.”

Not that any of her 19 male teammates have intentionally dunked her in the school’s outdoor swimming pool. Resentment, says the 18-year-old freshman from Sherman Oaks, comes in the form of snide remarks and cold shoulders.

“Some players will avoid me on campus at all costs,” she said. “I don’t want to say that they hate me, but they just don’t want me on the team. I think if I came to their games dressed up like a cheerleader, I’d be OK in their eyes.”

According to players, their beef with Smits van Oyen is that she shows up late for practices and doesn’t really belong in the same pool with men.

“She thinks she can play but she’s at a lower level than us,” said Scott Clark, a freshman from Glendale.

Nothing personal. “As a person, she’s nice,” he added.

Smits van Oyen’s friction with teammates increased when the school paper published a story about her with pictures that filled a full page. Some players felt that the lavish layout in the Oct. 19 issue of the Valley Star, which included five large photos, was out of proportion in regard to her contribution to the team: She has played in most of the 20-plus games but only for a few minutes. The players also were offended by the headline “Equal Play,” which implied, they thought, that she was as good as they were.

“Four issues in a row without a mention of water polo, then a whole page on her,” Coach Bill Krauss said. “Some of the players were jealous of the publicity.”

Smits van Oyen agreed. “Some of these guys really, really hate all this attention I’m getting.”

But Krauss, who ranks Smits van Oyen “18th best” among his 20 players, doesn’t think the situation is as bad as she contends. “Basically, the players get along with her fine.”

Louie Brinker, a player she considers one of her friends on the team, said that her participation “is a touchy subject around here, but I think of her as one of the team members.”

Smits van Oyen, who has a Dutch father and Finnish mother, also played on the boys’ water polo team at Notre Dame. At 5-foot-9, 145 pounds, she never worried about being overmatched by males. Chauvinism wasn’t a problem in high school: Marianne Donaldson had paved the way a year before Smits van Oyen joined the team.

“Marianne talked me and another girl into going out for water polo so she wouldn’t be the only girl,” said Smits van Oyen, who played two seasons on the Notre Dame varsity.

At Valley, she hasn’t had any trouble with sophomores--”They’re mature enough to accept me”--or from freshmen she played against at Notre Dame. “They’re really helpful and nice,” she said. But she has been in hot water with the freshmen who didn’t know her in high school.

“They like to think of me as the worst player on the team,” she said. “But there are people who are worse--and they’re guys.”

Her bad experiences have made her even more determined to succeed. “Nothing they can do can stop me from playing,” she said. “It’s been bizarre this year, but I still love the game and being able to play.”

After finishing at Valley, Smits van Oyen plans to go to a four-year college, major in biology and play water polo--for the women’s team. “All I want,” she said, “is to be friends with my teammates.”